Russia, the Ukraine, Emolument -gate are politically inconvenient.
There are certainly many differences among the sextet, but the major one is guilt by accusation. Russia connections ended up in The Mueller Report. If you have read that immense document; which is really two documents, it is a meticulous report very evidence-ary in nature. I can imagine Perry Mason and lawyers helped by Bull doing battle in court pulling out cherry picked excerpts, even if just from the heavily redacted version of Mueller’s document, to prove their case.
If you read memes the right posts, hear their rants, the approach is different. How many years did we have of hearings, testimony? Where are our damning 
innocence, proving reports that Perry or Bull’s lawyer could use? Instead we go straight from accusation to guilt, but guilt only borne out of political convenience. It is an assumed ‘known fact’ that Hillary and Barack “did nothing.” That they sat back and watched Benghazi happen, even laughed at the carnage. Fast is a ‘proven’ fact: even though it was started under the Bush administration and stopped during Obama. Took too long, but still “stopped.” Hillary’s E-mails are, perhaps, the best example of this: filled with unproven accusations where they hold up 30,000 plus E-mails deleted…. No they don’t. Have you read one bloody E-mail? Seen any proof of a single: non-reclassified after the fact, E-mail proving this?
It is an accusation: E-mails of a personal nature were deleted, and those E-mails should not have been mixed in with the business of government. This much we agree on. E-mails were probably deleted by staff, rather than Hillary, it’s the only thing that makes sense. A woman as busy as Hillary Clinton with millions of digital conversations simply wouldn’t have the time to sit there and weed out over 30,000 E-mails… OR some automated software did it. (I tend to prefer the former.) Of course going after staff isn’t all that politically convenient: it’s more convenient to paint Hillary as some fang dripping acid maniac with hellish red hot brimstones for visual portals, gleefully risking national security, cackling as she deleted the evidence.
Just like it’s easier: more politically convenient, to paint Bernie Sanders as an heir to Stalin and Lenin rather than the leaders of the far more civil socialist, rather than communist, countries.
Guilt by accusation. Is it that far from guilt by association, as per the 50’s Republican: Joseph McCarthy? Yes; it could be far worse.
Much of today’s right has more akin to a lynch mob activated by the slightest, often conjured up out of nothing, offense. Which is historically ironic: the two parties have switched places over time. Once southern Democrats were more likely to be part of a lynch mob.
Maybe I’m wrong. I mean, what could be more offensive, more satanic than a beer summit, or holding a cup of coffee while saluting, or wearing a sleeveless dress? HORRORS!
But let’s go to the supposed major ‘scandals’ pushed by the right. Where is the Benghazi Report and all the quoting from it? And where was even the slightest bipartisan nature to it like, you know, the head of the investigation being a Democrat? Where is our Hunter and Joe Biden Report? There has been plenty of time to do this, instead of waiting to jump from accusation to claims of guilt. Or is the late to the scandal party nature of this no more than a politically convenient strawmen meant to distract from quid right out in the open?
I think we know the answer to that: YES.
Anyone notice even the investigations of E-mail at best ended with some version of little more than “careless,” but the memes and the rants still assume guilt? Anyone notice how Barr intentionally falsely framed the Report after having it heavily redacted? Anyone notice how both have been conveniently framed so that claims become supposed ‘evidence’ and “the preponderance of (that) ‘evidence'” fit their political agenda? Anyone think Barr, who has throughout presidential history has served the wet nurse and legalistic thug for presidents, makes a great choice to lead the charge to investigate the investigator?
Just the opposite: Barr’s idea of ‘justice’ and ‘evidence’ is the drowned witch was guilty, the floating witch was guilty, his client is always innocent. We’re not even allowed to investigate, but for now when it comes to evidence that shows the guilt he’s ready to lead the lynch mob. I have been reading The Mueller Report and I believe the redactions amount to a lynching of truth. Let all of us see them! Prove otherwise!
Good luck with that.
Legally there’s a deeper aspect to all this. If you have listened and read commentary from the right over the years about the justice system there’s been a drive to go from a guilty beyond a reasonable doubt system to “a preponderance of the evidence.” Is there any solid legal definition for “preponderance?” “Preponderance” could be whatever is decided at the moment. One imagines “preponderance” is far too easily driven by factors other than “how much.” You know, like race, perceptions of the defendant’s image (if he’s a slob, or fat, or ugly), whether he has the right friends, political correctness… hell, it could get real stupid with color of hair or personal hygiene. Using lady justice as a metaphor, how heavy we personally perceive each item would matter too: like how dangerous a racist cop views stopping a black man in a Caddy v. a white redneck. The jury, and/or the judge, might FEEL one item is so heavy the scale is tipped. Screw reasonable doubt; it would no longer matter. This would be a system borne out of a desire to convict out of convenience, guilt when someone’s nature is politically inconvenient: offering no real trial at all.
Which perfectly match the lynch mob mentality led by Trump himself: “lock her up…” guilt by politically convenient accusation.
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Inspection is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over 40 years. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks, and into the unseen cracks and crevasses, that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.
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